


Balloons and Ballrooms

by JA_Authoress



Series: Muggle Mishaps [46]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Balloons, Ballroom, Dancing, F/M, February 1979, Fluff, M/M, Valentine's Day, jily, wolfstar
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-14
Updated: 2016-02-15
Packaged: 2018-05-20 10:56:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,939
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6003202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JA_Authoress/pseuds/JA_Authoress
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>February 14, 1979</p><p>Valentine's Day has finally arrived! Remus manages to surprise Sirius by upholding a sacred Marauder tradition involving balloons.  Sirius is ridiculous (as usual), and together the best boyfriends in England proceed to crash James's romantic ballroom dancing event with Evans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Balloons

February 14, 1979

It had started out small, as things normally do. Peter left a single balloon on Marlene McKinnon’s bed at Hogwarts on Valentine’s Day (they never did find out who he bribed to put it there).

It spiralled out of control from there.

Soon it became a Marauder tradition. Give muggle balloons to the object of your current affection. Everyone knew it was them, but could never actually prove it. There was always a much more elaborate prank that would overshadow any balloons.

Lily Evans always suffered the most, of course. Muggle balloons didn’t take well to being poked at with wands, and once one popped, it usually sent everything off in a chain reaction.

Second year and beyond, Remus always woke up to a bed full of balloons. Big ones, small ones, pink ones, vaguely heart shaped ones. Being a light sleeper, he had no idea how the perpetrator managed to slip through his defences. He never took it entirely seriously.

Sirius Black remembered quite clearly one instance in sixth year. Sure, he always got balloons from his fellow Marauders (although they would never admit to it), but sixth year was quite special. It was only two months after the Whomping Willow Incident, and quite frankly, Sirius didn’t expect anyone to bother including him in their tradition.

Instead, he was surprised to find a black balloon twisted into the shape of a dog sitting at the end of his bed. He would never admit to anyone how much he cried when he saw it. He carried it around every day until it finally deflated. Even then, he still kept it, tucked away in his charms book.

For whatever reason, Sirius assumed that this tradition wouldn’t carry over past their Hogwarts years. However, as he forced his eyes open at the ungodly hour of seven thirty a.m., he was pleasantly surprised to find his bed and floor covered in balloons.

There were even more gently floating along the floor in the hallway outside his door.

Resisting the urge to take his Animagus form and prance through them, Sirius wandered out into the living room. The whole flat was covered in balloons.

“Morning Padfoot. Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Remus was at the stove, cooking bacon and eggs, looking a little suspicious and terribly smug.

“How are you still breathing after all this?” Sirius laughed, giving his boyfriend a back hug and a kiss on the neck.

“After what? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You’re a shite liar.”

“Am not! Got out of more detentions than you did.”

“Stop your sexy smirking, I can’t handle it. Make my breakfast. Where’s my tea?”

Remus laughed.

7:52 a.m.

“I will say this. I wouldn’t recommend wearing a wool jumper to set all this up.”

“So you’re finally admitting it was you?”

“No, I’m merely pointing out a fact that really should have been obvious, but obviously wasn’t so obvious to the obvious person who set all this shite up.”

Sirius flicked Remus’s nose. He shifted into Snuffles, and the dog barked happily, rolling around in the layer of balloons. They stuck to his fur, and continued to stick to Sirius himself as he stood back up.

Remus practically howled with laughter, even though his ribs were still considerably sore.

“Moony! It’s the power of eleckticity!”

“Padfoot, have you been doing after work drinks with Arthur Weasley again?”

“How did you know?”

“Just a guess.”

“Oh! Wait here.” Sirius bounced out of the room. He accidentally popped a few balloons in his haste. He swore violently every time.

Remus was still shaking his head, before a large, interestingly wrapped present was chucked at his face.

“Why is this package so large and lumpy? And why are the balloons attracted to it?!”

Sirius grinned. “Open it! It’s for me too.”

A little concerned, but incredibly curious, Remus tore open the wrapping. He burst out laughing.

“The first one’s to replace the one I kind of sorta ruined with chocolate. The other two are for us.”

The first one was quite normal looking. Big, green and very comfortable looking.

The other two were definitely matching. Large, red, with white paw prints strutting into a heart shape (well, basically a heart shape).

“Those things took me bloody AGES to knit. Sarah helped me with the pattern. She’s like the aunt I’ve never had.”

“I love them.” Remus kissed Sirius. Long and sweet.

“Your happiness makes me happy. And these balloons, they make me very happy too.”

Remus pulled a small pot from the side table. “This is for you.”

Sirius carefully took the pot in his hand. “Oh! The carnivorous plant that won’t actually eat me!”

“It’s a Venus flytrap, or _Dionaea muscipula_ if you want.”

“I think it’s safe to say we’ve definitely got the best boyfriends in all of England.”

“I concur.”

Sirius glanced at the clock and groaned. “Bugger, I don’t want to go to training. Mad-eye has it out for me, seriously.”

“My shift starts in an hour anyway. You have anything ridiculous planned for us tonight?”

Sirius’s smirk grew. “Our deer friend Prongs may have let it slip that he and Evans are going to some sort of ballroom dancing thing tonight.”

“Are we going too?”

“My dear Moony, of course we are.”

“You know I can’t dance.”

“No worries, love, neither can Prongs.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day all! Originally the balloons and the ballroom thing were supposed to be in one chapter, but this one got pretty long, and I decided it's best to cut it into two parts. There's a second chapter still to come! Hopefully tomorrow.
> 
> Thanks to Bunny for the balloon idea and her 'DANCES OMG MAKE THEM DANCE AT A DANCE OR SOMETHING'. It was pretty funny. 
> 
> Thank you to everyone for following along with me. Please leave a kudos/comment if you enjoyed part one of this episode!
> 
> Remember! Valentine's Day is incredibly commercial and you'd better not slack off for the rest of the year just because it's over. There are still 364 other days of the year that are just as good to show your significant other that you seriously (and Siriusly) care about them.
> 
> Have a wonderful day!


	2. Ballroom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wherein our heroes heroically (and stupidly) crash Lily's romantic ballroom date with James. Complete with couple sweaters.

“Are you sure we’re not underdressed?” Remus tugged at the sleeve of his sweater underneath his coat.

“If we are, no worries mate, I’m just as dressed up.” Sirius grinned, proudly showcasing the matching sweater through an open (very impractical) leather jacket.

“That’s not very comforting.” Remus deadpanned. He glanced up ahead at the doors to the centre. “There’s Prongs and Lily.”

“Prongs! Love of my life, I knew you’d come!”

James had 2.3 seconds to react. By which I mean valiantly flail to get him to stop for 1.3 seconds, until resigning to the fact that there was no stopping Sirius from his chosen warpath, and simply held his arms out to catch his best friend. He stumbled back a bit and nearly knocked over Lily, but after eight years of having to deal with Sirius’s ‘leaps of faith and stupidity’, he’d developed some impressive reflex skills.

He was actually secretly pleased (don’t tell his fiancée). At least with Remus there, he’d have someone to be a bad dancer with. 

Lily was less than impressed by their appearance.

“BLACK! What the bloody hell are you doing here?”

“I’m taking my boyfriend out for a romantic date, obviously.”

Remus rolled his eyes. Most everyone was inside already, so it wasn’t as though anyone had heard. Not that he entirely minded, but he had to deal with enough prejudice, he didn’t want it to trickle over to his best friends too.

“Remus, what in the name of MERLIN are you wearing?”

“This would be my Valentine’s Day jumper, courtesy of the best boyfriend in all of England.”

“While that is absolutely adorable—bloody hell, are you two actually matching?” Lily kept flicking her gaze between the two. 

“Indeed we are! Took me all of January, and Sarah had to help with the paw bits, but I assure you, we’ll be the best dressed couple here.”

“Are you actually going to wear those jumpers dancing? What about suits?”

“Admit it Evans, you think we look bloody fantastic in suits.”

“I will do no such thing. Also, thank you for the flowers. They were very thoughtful.”

Sirius smiled. “Was the arrangement bigger than the one Prongs got you?”

James huffed at the side. That answered his question.

“That being said, I have something for you.” 

“Is that so?” Sirius quirked an eyebrow as the group stopped in the hallway before the ballroom.

Lily smirked wickedly, trusting out a brightly coloured piece of paper. “Terribly sorry Remus, but you’re going to have to find another date to crash. Now, if you would be so kind as to bugger off, James and I will—”

Remus winced as Sirius took the ‘Sirius Free Day’ coupon from Lily. She was not going to be happy about this.

“Evans, I do appreciate the sentiment, I really do, but if you’d actually taken the time to read the fine print, you’ll see that these aren’t valid during the months of December or February.”

“… What?”

“I believe you heard me the first time. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a werewolf to woo.”

Remus found himself dragged onto the dance floor (feeling incredibly self conscious, both about his complete and utter lack of dancing skills, and the fact that he was quite underdressed).

“SIRIUS BLACK! If you ruin one more of my romantic evenings with James so help me I will—”

“Focus on the steps, Lily-love. You can kill him later. I will even help you. But only if you don’t kill me now!”

Lily growled, dragging her fiancé out onto the floor. It didn’t help matters that Sirius was easily one of the best dancers at the event, even with a partner like Remus, he was utterly graceful.

“You’re doing splendid, Moony!” He only grimaced a little when Remus trod on his toe again.

“This would be going much better if you’d just take the lead.”

“I’m shorter!” Sirius spied James and Lily out of the corner of his eye. “Now, what would Messr Moony say to breaking those love birds up?”

“Messr Moony would have to say that Messr Padfoot is quite brilliant.”

“Messr Padfoot is delighted that Messr Moony agrees with him.”

The pair waltzed over, and with surprising coordination (and a little stumbling on Remus’s part), James and Lily were effectively spit up.

Lily’s bright green eyes widened comically and then narrowed dangerously. “I knew Black would be a bad influence on you.”

Remus laughed. “Well, at least I got the better dancer. Poor Sirius. I must have trodden on his feet half a dozen times. Merlin knows what poor James is like.”

“Not much better, I assure you. For such a brilliant Chaser, the man has absolutely no coordination for things on the ground.”

James and Sirius twirled past them.

“And 1, 2, 3, and 1, 2, 3, and—bloody hell! Left foot mate, left foot! For Merlin’s sake, take the lead man!”

The evening went quite well actually. Sirius made sure to spread his ballroom expertise around. Sometimes taking on women partners, but usually taking their dates instead. Remus wouldn’t inflict his large feet on anyone else but his friends, and after a particularly disastrous attempt to dance with James, he sat out for part of the night.

Sirius, of course, would have none of that, and made sure to spend the last dance sweeping his boyfriend off his feet, figuratively speaking of course. (Although there was that fancy bit at the end, which involved a bit of a lift, and of course, seeing as Remus was still recovering from the moon, he took it upon himself to do the lifting.)

Everyone left the ballroom event in high spirits.

Sirius frowned suddenly, wrapping himself up in Remus’s arms.

“Does anyone know what Wormy was up to today?”

James and Lily were already chatting away, debating on where to go for drinks (“They are not coming.” “Just accept it, Lily-love. It’ll happen whether you want it to or not”).

Remus kissed away the frown.

“Not sure, Pads. He probably did all right though, he always does.”

“I suppose you’re right. Should’ve invited him along though, would’ve been a riot.”

“Next year.”

Sirius nuzzled his boyfriend’s neck.

“I love you.”

“I love you too.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day. I bought my coworkers chocolate lava cakes, and I got the chocolate with the rice crispy things in it. It was a good day. (forever single...)
> 
> Thanks to Bunny for putting up with my demand for lines! And thank you everyone for taking time out of your Valentine's Day to support my fanfiction addiction.
> 
> Please leave a kudos/comment if you enjoyed this episode! Now, don't panic, but I have something planned for March, but not really for the rest of February, so you might get an episode between now and then, you might not... just a warning to all of you who care...
> 
> Remember! Waltzing isn't actually that hard. Being born without a sense of rhythm (like me) and trying to waltz is. It's the thought that counts.
> 
> Have a wonderful day!


End file.
